One characteristic of Third World nations is corruption woven into the system. When I was in India many years ago, for instance, I learned you had to offer bribes to get anything done, even just to obtain a driver's license. It was pay to play.

There has been much focus on whether Barack Obama is a natural-born American, but often lost in this debate is a very significant fact: whatever the president is in letter, he is no American in spirit. His governing philosophy is not American; he is not patriotic. And, to the point here, he has introduced a level of corruption to government more suggestive of where he spent his formative years, Indonesia; or that other Third World place, in which he cut his political teeth, Chicago.

Those outside the Mainstream Media Matrix hear the stories. There was Solyndra, where half a billion taxpayer dollars went down a rat hole to Obama cronies; the rape of the GM bondholders; Fast and Furious, in which our government gave weapons to south-of-the-border cartels, which then used them to murder Americans and hundreds of Mexicans; the refusal to implement aspects of immigration law that the president doesn't like; the support of Wisconsin union brownshirts; and Benghazi-gate, just to name a few. And, in keeping with the president's immigration shell game, there is the overall flouting of the rule of law, which the voters, through gross electoral malpractice four years ago, traded for the rule of a lawyer named Obama.

A most ominous aspect of this is the president's power to grant ObamaCare waivers to whomever he pleases. Why does this matter? Well, as Thomas Sowell explained just today:

The 14th Amendment to the Constitution provides for "equal protection of the laws" for all Americans. To have a law that can cost an organization millions of dollars a year either apply or not apply, depending on the whim or political interest of the President of the United States, is to make a mockery of the rule of law.

How secure is any freedom when there is this kind of arbitrary power in the hands of one man?

What does your right of freedom of speech mean if saying something that irritates the Obama administration means that you or your business has to pay huge amounts of money and get hit with all sorts of red tape under ObamaCare that your competitor is exempted from, because your competitor either kept quiet or praised the Obama administration or donated to its reelection campaign?

This is Third World governance. It's reminiscent of what happens in places such as Argentina, where businesses that toe the ruling-party line get rewarded, while those that don't get punished and perhaps, even, nationalized.

It is also how you consolidate power. After all, corporate backing is invaluable for political candidates. But how many businesses will support the opposition if they know it means the hobbling, and maybe even destruction of, their business? This government control over business also is, we should note, a distinguishing feature of fascism, as espoused by Benito Mussolini and its other founding fathers.

This brings us to what's at stake this election. If we want more evil behavior, all we need do is reward it through toleration. And there is such a thing as the point of no return. Once corruption is woven into your civilization, it can be as inextricable as a virus in the human nervous system. It becomes status quo, and then you can't play at all if you don't pay; then even "good" people accept it as just a fact of life.

Barack Obama has gotten away with murder, figuratively and literally, thus far. The media has enabled this, through their sins of omission and commission: through their failure to expose the president's malfeasance and their manufacture of faux dirt on his opponents (e.g., the Bain game). And if the voters re-elect Obama — despite in-your-face scandals, a listing economy, and fraying foreign policy — the president will get a clear message.

"I can get away with anything."

He will be like a child who crashed his unearned Nissan and maxed-out daddy's credit card — and then is rewarded with a Porsche and credit-line extension.

This election will tell us if the American people are wearing a collective "Kick me" sign. If so, we are damning our posterity to a kick in the bottom and a jackboot on the neck, without measure and without end.

Selwyn Duke

Selwyn Duke (@SelwynDuke) has written for The Hill, Observer, The American Conservative, WorldNetDaily and American Thinker. He has also contributed to college textbooks published by Gale – Cengage Learning, has appeared on television and is a frequent guest on radio. His website is www.SelwynDuke.com.